Today’s Food History

1380 Charles V of France Died.
* It was Charles V who commissioned Taillevent to write what would become the first professional cookery book written in France, ‘Le Viandier’.
* Forks were mentioned in an inventory during his reign
* Some believe that he died as a result of eating amanita mushrooms.

1630 Shawmut changed its name to Boston. If not for this, we might be eating Shawmut Baked Beans and Shawmut Cream Pie today!

1736 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit died. Fahrenheit was a German physicist who invented the Fahrenheit temperature scale thermometer. It was the first thermometer to use mercury instead of alcohol, which also extended the temperature range of thermometers.

1835 Charles Darwin arrived at the Galapagos islands aboard the HMS Beagle. The unique fauna he observed on the various islands there helped in forming his theory of natural selection.

1919 Marvin P. Middlemark was born. He invented the TV ‘rabbit ear’ antenna, and among other minor inventions, a water powered potato peeler.